The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently issued a public request for information (RFI) seeking input on federal policy updates that can significantly accelerate US scientific innovation. This critical effort aims to strengthen the entire science and technology (S&T) ecosystem, enabling groundbreaking discoveries and ensuring that scientific progress and technological innovation benefit all Americans. By directly soliciting recommendations from a diverse range of stakeholders—including academia, private sector organizations, industry groups, and state, local, and tribal governments—OSTP emphasizes a collaborative approach to shaping future federal scientific investment and strategy.
Strengthening the S&T Ecosystem and Public-Private Collaboration
The RFI focuses on key policy areas designed to modernize the nation’s scientific enterprise. Stakeholders must provide evidence-based recommendations on how the government can best support the transition of scientific advancements from research institutions into practical, commercial applications.
Specifically, OSTP is requesting input on:
- Policy Changes for Collaboration: Identify specific changes to federal funding mechanisms, procurement processes, or partnership authorities that would enable stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors. The goal is to better leverage America’s vast private sector resources for use-inspired basic and early-stage applied research.
- Commercial Translation: Propose policies that would enhance the translation of scientific discoveries from universities, National Laboratories, and other research institutions into commercial use, effectively accelerating the time it takes for new technologies to reach the market.
- Regional Innovation: Recommend policies to encourage the formation and scaling of regional innovation ecosystems. These ecosystems should connect local businesses, universities, educational institutions, and the local workforce, particularly utilizing federal research assets as anchors.
- Business Participation: Detail how federal policies can strengthen the role of small- and medium-sized businesses as both drivers of innovation and early adopters of emerging technologies.
Advancing High-Risk Research and Emerging Technologies
A major component of this initiative is addressing how to fund and manage the next generation of scientific breakthroughs. OSTP is challenging the community to suggest reforms that enable the American scientific enterprise to pursue more high-risk, high-reward research that could fundamentally transform scientific understanding, while simultaneously sustaining the incremental science necessary for cumulative knowledge production.
Furthermore, the RFI explicitly addresses the impact of advanced technology on the research process itself:
- Leveraging AI: Provide recommendations on how the federal government can best leverage and prepare for advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. This includes autonomous experimentation, automated hypothesis generation, experimental design, and literature synthesis, all of which may transform scientific research.
- Workforce Readiness: Suggest policy mechanisms to foster closer collaboration among scientists, engineers, and skilled technical workers, and better integrate training pathways, recognizing that breakthrough research often requires a deep partnership between theoretical and applied expertise.
Research Integrity and Equitable Benefits
Beyond accelerating discovery, the RFI also emphasizes the need to maintain a strong foundation of research integrity and ensure broad societal benefit. The government seeks input on policies to strengthen research security and integrity, which involves protecting sensitive technologies and mitigating risks while still promoting an open and collaborative research environment. Ultimately, OSTP is focused on ensuring that the benefits of federally funded research—including access to resulting technologies, economic opportunities, and an improved quality of life—reach all Americans.
The input gathered through this Request for Information will directly inform the efforts of the Executive Branch to advance and maintain U.S. S&T leadership and continue the push for what the administration calls a “Golden Age of American Innovation.”
